The COVID-19 pandemic ravaged communities, but has also taught society to appreciate frontline workers.Nurses, firefighters, teachers, delivery workers and even doctors have rightfully received immense support throughout the pandemic.

However, there has been one unsung hero of this pandemic: journalists.

Journalists have been out in the field, risking the contraction of COVID-19, to report on the pandemic and other news to inform and educate people. Even remote reporters have been working long hours to get the news out every day.

Day in and day out, journalists have been interviewing, writing, photographing, videoing, editing and working to disseminate news to people across the world.

Without these reporters, no one would know anything happening in the world because there would be no newspapers, magazines and TV news shows.

The local NY1 and News 12 stations would have no anchors. The New York Times and Post and Daily News wouldn’t come to print.

This would be an issue — pun intended — in any day and age, but it would especially be a problem during the pandemic when reporters are needed to spread critical COVID-19 regulations and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. They report the daily COVID-19 death, hospitalization and new case rates.

Of course, all other frontline workers have done an amazing job during the pandemic and deserve love and support; that’s not up for debate. But journalists should be a part of that crowd, too.

They were on the front lines reporting from hospitals, funeral homes, testing sites, refrigerated morgue trucks, City Hall, vaccination sites and the homes of families who lost members to COVID-19. They also reported on non-COVID topics in-person.

All of this put them at risk of getting sick. Their work has been desperately needed throughout the pandemic, always has been needed and will continue to be needed.

While people showed their support for nurses and doctors by clapping for two minutes every night at 7 p.m., they should have also been, and should still be, supporting journalists with the same kind of fervor.